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A Few Days Off

This past weekend our summer team, Dayton Dutch Lions, traveled to play Charlotte Lady Eagles on Saturday night. Since the men's Dutch Lions team had a game versus Charlotte men's team on Saturday as well we traveled with them, first making a stop in Charleston, South Carolina for their game versus Charleston Battery on Friday night. We left Dayton at 8am on Thursday morning and didn't get to Charleston till 8pm on Thursday night! It was a very long bus ride and we had to double up seats on the bus because of the amount of people traveling. It was very crowded so when people wanted to sleep they would sleep on the floor of the bus! Sharing seats was so uncomfortable and the floor was very hot so either way sharing a seat or sleeping on the floor the ride was not ideal. I never realized how lucky we are when we travel with UC and each get our own seats!!

After a light practice Friday morning we had the rest of the day to go walk around downtown Charleston, go to the mall, hangout at the pool, relax, or basically do whatever we wanted until we left at 6 for the mens game. Logan, being the smart one of the group, had brought her bathing suit in case of nice weather so we could go for a swim at the hotels pool. A big group of us wanted to go swimming as well so we took the bus shuttle over to the Walmart and each bought a bathing suit so we could go swimming as well! The pool water was perfect and the weather was hot with a nice breeze so it was a really nice way to spend an afternoon off!

After the pool we went to dinner at a restraunt in Daniels Island, SC near the stadium the boys were playing at before heading to their game. Their game was very exciting, a lot of shots, 2 red cards, and even a headbutt from one player to another! The fan base in Charleston made it even more exciting--their stands were filled with hundreds screaming fans. After the mens game ended we drove 3 hours to Charlotte to stay the night for our game on Saturday.

Our game Saturday started out wild. When we got to the fields and went to the locker room, the weather was a hot, humid 95 degrees with the sun blazing down but when we came out of the locker room after about 30 minutes, the weather was a very windy, cloud covered sky and only about 60 degrees!! It was quite a change and it certainly looked like there was going to be a storm. We had been about 10 minutes into our warmup when it started to downpour on us! It was the heaviest rain I had played in, in a long time and the wind made it so much worse! The wind was blowing all of our soccer balls and cones away and it made it very difficult to run in. About 20 minutes before game time a BIG bolt of lightning flashed and we had to go back to the locker rooms and wait half an hour for a rain delay. After the delay, it was only raining a little bit so we quickly warmed back up and began the game. We had played really well in the first half of the game; we were winning 1-0 and our backline of Kay, Logan, a girl who plays at UK, and I held Charlotte to only one shot on goal. The second half we looked a little bit tired from all the traveling and we gave up 2 goals, one on a set piece and one on a corner. We ended up tying the game late in the second half so we were happy coming away from a long travel trip with 1 point versus the team in first place. We traveled through the night and got back to Dayton around 7am on Sunday morning! It was such a long trip and I was so happy to be back at my apartment and not crammed on a bus anymore!

With no games this coming weekend our summer team coach gave us off practice which will be nice to rest up our bodies before a big game versus Atlanta July 2nd. The time off has given me some time to go back home and spend time with my family. I came back to Lemont on Monday morning after Kay, Emily, and I worked out with Kelly Howe. Lemont is a southwest suberb of Chicago, Illinois and the trip back to Lemont normally takes about 4 and a half hours but with the crazy rain and thunderstorms on Monday it took me quite a bit longer! About 5 and a half hours later I was so happy to be pulling in to my driveway and see my family and my dog. Home has been very relaxing so far and I've just been hanging out with my family a lot, nothing too exciting but I am going up to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin this weekend so hopefully this awful, rainy weather clears up so we can take the boat out!!